


Clearing the Air

by reeby10



Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Insecurity, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 18:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4845998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You never ask me about Kel,” Neal says one day, apropo of nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clearing the Air

**Author's Note:**

> This started as the beginning of an exchange fic, but kind of puttered out here so I scrapped it and wrote something else. I still thought it was a pretty good standalone, though, so here it is :)

“You never ask me about Kel,” Neal says one day, apropo of nothing.

Alanna turns her head to look at him, considering the mullish tilt of his mouth. She thinks he looks annoyed, but she can’t tell at what. She’s learned many of his facial expressions and unique quirks in the time they’ve been knight master and squire, but sometimes he’s hard to read, no matter how he normally wears his heart and feels right out on his shoulder.

“No,” she says slowly, wondering what answer he’s looking for. “I haven’t. Not yet, at any rate.”

“Does that mean you will?” he asks. “That you want to? I know you would have rather had her.”

And there it is. She should have known that would come up sooner or later. It was what everyone had been thinking for years, and even what she’d been planning for. But plans changed, and for once she wasn’t really upset by that.

Getting Neal to believe that, though, would be another challenge. Alanna had known he was Keladry’s best friend long before she took him on as squire. It made things complicated, even more so once she’d gotten to know him. He was quite a forceful personality, in all his oddness, and she knew George would laugh at her for thinking that since she had little room to talk.

“I won’t lie to you,” she says after a few minutes of silent riding. She sees him stiffen in his saddle out of the corner of her eye, but continues on. “I’d plans to have her as my squire since she made it into page training.”

He nods, opening his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off. There is more she needs to say lest this discussion create the sort of rift she’d never wanted between them.

“But you were not some consolation prize because I couldn’t take her on, or a subtle way to get to her. That would be a cruel position for me to put you in,” she continues. “And no matter what has been said of me, I never been called cruel. Or subtle.”

“I know,” he replies, and the corner of his mouth quirks up. That’s a good sign, even if she must make jokes at her own expense.

“You will make a good knight, and a good healer,” she says, voice quieter. “You must believe that. I would not have chosen you if you weren’t.”

He nods, face clearing of its frustration- for she now knows that’s what it was- to be replaced by a blush. She refrains from commenting on it because she knows he needs a little time to process. He’s probably been holding in this discussion for weeks, and she can give him that at least.

If she smiles just a little more when he starts to joke again later, well, perhaps they both needed to clear the air.

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. If you like my fic, come chat with me [on tumblr](http://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/) or maybe [buy me a coffee](http://ko-fi.com/A7274PC).


End file.
